Wellesley College Hires First African-American President

Dr. Paula Johnson plans to build on the elite school’s commitment to diversity.

Johnson will become Wellesley’s 14th president and the first African-American to lead the elite women’s liberal arts college. She takes over in July, replacing H. Kim Bottomly, who is resigning after nine years.

According to the Globe, Johnson has a sense of “special responsibility” as the school’s first Black president and supports the college’s focus on diversity.

She plans “to not only strengthen and deepen that diversity, but also ensure that our residential experience is taking full advantage of that diversity, that our young women are really experiencing all the richness that that diversity brings on campus,” the newspaper reports.

“Even among a superb group of candidates, Dr. Johnson stood out through her record as a scholar and leader, together with her passion for women’s advancement, education, and well-being, the energy and insights she conveyed in our discussions, and her enthusiasm for Wellesley,” Debora de Hoyos, chairwoman of the search committee and a college trustee, said in a statement.

Johnson, 56, is currently a Harvard Medical School professor and the former chairwoman of the Boston Public Health Commission.